No Age's Randy Randall Talks New Album, Injury, Documentary

"Fuck Prop 8 in the Face"

In the time since they released Nouns, our #3 album of 2008, the two dudes in the L.A. dreampunk band No Age have been keeping themselves busy: releasing last year's Losing FeelingEP, designing their own skate shoe, making awesome videos, touring constantly. But now they're finally buckling down and working on the follow-up at Infrasonic Sound studios in L.A. They hope to release the new album this summer.

Recently, Pitchfork caught up with guitarist Randy Randall last week to talk about the new album, the documentary he's working on, the band's recent tours, and his unfortunate dance-off injury.

Pitchfork: What stage is the album in right now?

Randy Randall: Right now, I think we have a couple more days in the studio. It's pretty far along. We haven't got to the mixing part yet, and we haven't started doing vocals yet. But most of the tracking and overdubs are almost done, so I would say we're 60 to 75 percent done.

Pitchfork: How long have you been working on it?

RR: We have been writing almost all year. In between dates out on the road, we come back and just write for it. We first went into the studio in December for a few days, so we work in small blocks. We come into the studio here, then go to our home studio and demo stuff, so we bounce back and forth between doing our own recording and then doing it at the studio.

Pitchfork: Do you have a title for the album yet?

RR: No, no title for it. We're still getting all the songs together. I don't think we have it in a headlock just yet. The album is still kind of taking shape.

Pitchfork: Have you been playing these songs live?

RR: We've been playing two songs live for most of this year. We've had them for a while, and we've been really excited to get them into the studio and whip them into shape.

Pitchfork: Do those songs have names?

RR: One song is called "Fever Dreaming", and the other one is going by a very uninteresting title, "New Two". "Fever Dreaming" is definitely the title of the other song. The other one, we've just been calling it different funny names at the shows.

Pitchfork: What's been the funniest title?

RR: I think the best one was "Fuck Prop 8 in the Face".

Pitchfork: When I last talked to you, about a year ago, you were working on the Losing FeelingEP. You said you were using the EP to play around with sounds and ideas that you might use on the next full-length. So on this album, are you pushing forward with the sounds from that EP?

RR: I think so. For the EP, we were looking to explore the options of the sounds we had, going with more sample-based ideas-- not using samples just as a backing track but writing with them as another instrument. Anyone familiar with our sound knows it's not just stripped-down guitar and drums, even though it's just the two of us. It's not like a Black Keys, where you got the drums and the guitar and that's it. We work with a lot of other sounds. We've been incorporating the samples as part of the rhythm, as part of the melody, as part of just the larger textured pattern of it.

So yeah, I think the EP was a sketch of that, but we have been doing it a lot longer, and it's becoming more integrated. I don't think it stands out as, I don't know, a Paul's Boutique with cut-up samples. We aren't sampling other records; we are making the samples ourselves and working through them electronically to get them to a sound we like. It's kind of a sound-collage element that's rooted in the songwriting process for some of the tracks, and some of them are sort of straight-up songs with textures and flurries of sampled sounds.

Pitchfork: When you were talking about the EP, I expected it to sound hazier than it does. It doesn't sound all that different from what you were doing originally.

RR: I think the end result is pretty similar, but the difference is in the writing process, in how we are taking the samples more into the composition process. I think the same could be said for this record. It's not a whole lot different than from what we have done in the past; there's no big departures. But the creative process is evolving more.

Pitchfork: Is it still just the two of you working on the record, or are you bringing in any guests?

RR: No guests. We're working with our engineer and friend Pete Lyman who owns Infrasonic Studios, but it's just the two of us in here. We still have ideas to bat around, maybe for the next record. If, somewhere down the line, we get stale, we will get new blood. But we're doing all right now.

Pitchfork: Do you know when the album will be out?

RR: We would love to have it out sometime this summer. There's record label scheduling and stuff, but the tone of the record is kind of fun, with a more pop element to it. The EP might have been darker, but the songs coming together for the LP are definitely a brighter, more poppy version of us-- but still noisy and in the No Age vein.

Pitchfork: Is there any brighter, more poppy music you have been listening to lately that might be having an influence?

RR: Yeah, actually. The Go-Betweens have been on rotation. They have a really interesting sort of sound collage. That and this band Disco Inferno have been two references for us in a lot of ways. There's a fun-ness in there. Disco Inferno is really heavily sample-based, but still has this pop element. There's this record D.I. Go Pop that I have been listening to a lot during the creation of this.

RR: [laughs] I think it's called the shoulder break. It's a breakdancing move where I dislocate my shoulder. [laughs] It was no particular dance move. Anyone who knows me well knows I am not a very coordinated person. Since that video, no one has called me up to be a background dancer or anything. I don't think you'll see me in any Justin Timberlake videos. It was just one of those unfortunate things.

Pitchfork: At a few different shows, I've seen you do this big 20-foot amplifier leap. Have you ever hurt yourself doing that?

RR: No! I think that comes from the whole skateboard world, where you're like, "I can jump off of that." I can say I am definitely better at jumping off things than dancing, having to move my feet and hands at the same time.

Pitchfork: Are you still working on your documentary about all-ages venues?

RR: Yes. It's a whole new world working on a film project. It's very different than working on records. Working on records is more contained, and I have learned that the film stuff is a much more collaborative effort. We have thousands of hours of footage and like 46 people interviewed, so I am working with a team of editors and I am working with my producing partner Alisa Lipsitt, who is working tirelessly to put it together.

I thought I'd be like, "OK, cool, put it together." It's not that easy when you give someone thousands of hours of footage; it doesn't just come together overnight. Maybe I'm stuck in the Christmas on Mars band-movie thing. I also have this day job playing in No Age, which keeps me occupied, so I can't sit in front of a computer for 14 hours a day like the great editing people are. I am monitoring it, and hopefully we get something together soon because it looks really awesome.

The more I see it, I realize there is this story that there is no roadmap for these places, but there is some sort of inalienable human spirit of gathering, where you really want to come together to put a show on. I think everyone can relate to that. There is still something magical about how, on a DIY level, everyone gets together and makes some amazing shows happen at these unorthodox places. You don't have a lot of options right away, but in a way that's a benefit. If you play at the same places, you know the same thing is going to happen. I think it will be really good, and hopefully it will be done before the end of the year. I keep saying that.